Lots of progress made. After a disaster with one frame, it was remade and is now ready. Here's a snapshot of frames done:
A charred frame made by setting fire to the wood. This looked and smelled impressive but then end result is such a beautiful and even silvery graphite black that it hardly looked burned at all!
A sleek black frame for Monument To Love, a ribbed textured gold frame for the Grayson Perry painting, a distressed rotten wood effect frame for A Sad Memory, a box for Monkey At Sunset (that one will extend the edges in each direction like a noughts-and-crosses board).
Then the three sculptural frames...
1. "Narcissist" frame. Wood ready with arch cut. An semi-circular stained glass window will fit in the arch. I'll have to work out how to do it but I will use glass paints on a semi-circle of glass. I'll sculpt some daffodils for this too.
2. The "Octopus" frame. Wood frame ready, with arch. This was coated in diluted P.V.A., ready for plastering, then recesses filled with Sculptamold (see later). A crimson velour curtain for this has been purchased and a new painting panel cut for the arch.
3. The Bully frame. Aha! Here is the main subject of this blog...
The wooden pieces were cut and glued on, then the edges were drilled and screwed on and the wooden bits also screwed. Structural strength is important when dealing with heavy plaster. At the very least, the wood parts of the frame should survive being hung on a wall.
Here it is at that stage, with a tiny bit of white stuff on top...
After that the plastering. The plan was to pour plaster on and model in when wet. I've done this before, but the ridges on the frame, the sharp edges, tend to look sharp and stick out. Lots of plaster and lots of applications are needed and it takes time and is very messy. So my plan was to fill in the big bits first. I had two options: Sculptamold which is a papier maché type material or acrylic molding paste. I chose Sculptamold and slapped some on.
It's very like cottage cheese but easy to work with, sticky but not excessively so on your hands and tools, and you can mix and slap it on. The texture is lumpy like hard porridge oats, but for a rock effect that's good. I liked it so much that I decided to continue and built up all of the frame in it.
It has the advantage of being less heavy than plaster too.
Once dry I'll see how it sands. I'd like to make the rocks a tad more angular.
With luck I can finish all of the frames in a few days. It's a big task though. I'm promoting Art Up Close by painting on Nantwich square all day on Friday and I'll have an exhibition in Adam Capper's Studio there on Saturday. A new exciting café called Café 159 opens on that day too and it will have some of my paintings on show. On Thursday I'm taking down my Shrewsbury exhibition which has sold enough to be profitable which is rare and beautiful.
I've been listening to Brahms' symphonies all week and conclude that only the first is great because it's about the insecurity of trying to better Beethoven, as well as being a deliberate homage. The other symphonies sound like Beethoven and are musical, often having quite beautiful melodies, but have little meaning or feeling and I get the impression that he aimed for tunes first rather than trying to express feelings first, and ran to structure to avoid the innovation which he lacked the imagination and brilliance to achieve. I ache to begin writing The Death Symphony.
